The Final Scene Lyrics
The Final Scene
JOECome on in.
BETTY
What's going on, Joe?
Why am I so scared?
What was that woman saying?
She sounded so weird
I don't understand...
Please, can you tell me what's happening?
You said you loved me tonight
Shall I just go?
Say something, Joe
JOE
Have some pink champage and caviar
When you go visit with a star
The hospitality is stellar
BETTY
So this is where you're living?
JOE
Yes, it's quite a place, sleeps seventeen
Eight sunken tubs, a movie screen
A bowling alley in the cellar
BETTY
I didn't come to see a house, Joe
JOE
Sunset Boulevard
Cruise the Boulevard
Win yourself a Hollywood palazzo
Sunset Boulevard
Mythic Boulevard
Valentino danced on that terrazzo
BETTY
Who's it belong to?
JOE
Just look around you
BETTY
That's Norma Desmond.
JOE
Right on the money
That's Norma Desmond
That's Norma Desmond
That's Norma Desmond
That's Norma Desmond
BETTY
Why did she call me?
JOE
Give you three guesses
It's the oldest story in the book
Come see the taker being took
The world is full of Joes and Normas
Older woman, very well-to-do
Meets younger man, the standard cue
For two mechanical performers
BETTY
Just pack your things and let's go.
JOE
You mean all my things?
Have you gone mad?
Leave all these things I've never had?
Leave this luxurious existence?
You want me to face that one-room hell
That murphy bed, that rancid smell
Go back to living on subsistence?
It's no time to begin a new life
Now I've finally made a perfect landing
I'm afraid there's no room for a wife
Not unless she's uniquely understanding
you should go back to Artie and marry the fool
And you'll always be welcome to swim in my pool
BETTY
I can't look at you any more, Joe.
NORMA
Thank you, thank you, Joe, thank you...thank you.
What are you doing, Joe?
You're not leavine me?
JOE
Yes, I am, Norma.
NORMA
You can't! Max!
JOE
It's been a bundle of laughs
And thanks for the use of the trinkets
A little ritzy for the copy desk back in Dayton
And there's something you ought to know
I want to do you this favour
They'll never shoot that hopeless script of yours
They only wanted your car
NORMA
That's a lie! They still want me!
What about all my fan-mail?
JOE
It's Max who writes you letters
Your audience has vanished
They left when you weren't looking
Nothing's wrong with being fifty
Unless you're acting twenty
NORMA
I am the greatest star of them all.
JOE
Goodbye, Norma.
NORMA
No one ever leaves a star
REPORTER
And as dawn breaks over the murder house, Norma Desmond, famed star of yesteryear,
is in a state of complete mental shock.
NORMA:
This was dawn...
I don't know why I'm frightened...
Silent music starts to play!
Happy New Year, Darling...
If you're with me, next year will be,
Next year will be...
They bring in his head on a silver tray!
She kisses his mouth!
She kisses his mouth!
She kisses his mouth...
...Mad about the boy...
They'll say Norma's back at last!
MAX:
Madame, the cameras have arrived.
NORMA:
Max! Where am I?
MAX:
This is the staircase of the palace. And they're waiting for your dance.
NORMA:
Of course. Now I remember. I was so frightened I might fall...
MAX:
You are the greatest star of all!
Lights!
Cameras!
Action!
NORMA:
I can't go on with the scene! I'm too happy! May I say a few words, Mister DeMille? I can't tell you how wonderful it is to back in this studio making a picture. I promise you--I will never desert you again. This is my life. It always will be. There is NOTHING else. Just us. And the cameras. And all you wonderful people, out there in the dark. And now, Mister DeMille, I am ready for my close-up.
Song Overview
“The Final Scene” is Sunset Boulevard’s kill-switch. Joe blows up the arrangement, Norma fires the gun, and Max directs a fantasy so persuasive that the police and cameras become a film crew in her mind. On the 1994 American Premiere cast album, the track closes Act 2 and the recording itself - a long, shape-shifting sequence that braids dialogue, reprises, and that famous last address to the camera.
Review and Highlights
I hear three engines. First, Joe’s hard truth in clipped patter, the same cynical rhythm that powered the show’s early studio scenes. Second, Norma’s grand recitative, pulling phrases from earlier numbers - “With One Look,” “Surrender,” even a flash of “New Year’s Eve” - as if she can sing herself back into the past. Third, the orchestra, which toggles from noir tension to ceremonial hush when the “cameras” arrive. The climax works because it refuses melodrama’s safety net: the music doesn’t shout; it narrows the room and lets delusion do the rest.
Creation History
The track anchors the American Premiere recording with Glenn Close (Norma), Alan Campbell (Joe), and George Hearn (Max). It’s sequenced as the album’s final cut, following “The Phone Call,” and it functions like a radio play - spoken exchanges threaded with motifs and underscoring. Production-wise, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Nigel Wright produced the album for record, with orchestrations by Webber and David Cullen.
Song Meaning and Annotations
Plot
Betty arrives at the mansion and learns the cost of Joe’s arrangement. Joe, trying to cauterize the wound, pretends to enjoy the gilded cage and sends her back to Artie. Then he turns to Norma and tells the truth she cannot absorb - about the script, the car, the fan mail. He heads for the door. She shoots. The dawn brings reporters, cops, and lights. Max, ever the director, calls “Lights, cameras, action,” and Norma steps into the only reality that won’t betray her.
Song Meaning
This is a parable about the violence of waking up. Joe chooses honesty; the price is fatal. Norma chooses fantasy; the price is permanent. The song reframes earlier promises - “with one look I’ll be me” - as a spell that now seals her fate. It’s also a thesis for the piece: cinema gave us new ways to dream, and it also taught us how to disappear inside them.
Style, structure, and sound
Webber stages the finale like a film edit: dialogue cut to underscore, underscored speech cut to aria. Refrains from earlier songs reappear not as triumph but as haunt. Brass mark impact, low strings pulse the suspense, and then the texture thins for that last walk down the staircase - ritual hush, not applause bait.
Cultural touchpoint
The closing line - Norma’s readiness for her close-up - is inherited from Wilder’s 1950 film and now lives in the American-quote pantheon. The musical doesn’t just quote it; it re-stages the psychology behind it, turning an arrest into a premiere in her mind.
Key Facts
- Artist: Andrew Lloyd Webber, George Hearn, Glenn Close
- Composer: Andrew Lloyd Webber
- Lyricists/Book: Don Black, Christopher Hampton
- Album: Sunset Boulevard (1994 Los Angeles Cast)
- Release Date: September 13, 1994
- Track #: 31 on the full American Premiere sequence
- Label: Polydor/PolyGram; U.S. distribution also appears under A&M
- Genre: dramatic finale - sung dialogue, reprises, underscored monologue
- Instruments: orchestra with strings, brass, woodwinds, percussion, piano
- Mood: claustrophobic, ceremonial, fatalistic
- Language: English
- Music style: through-composed scene with motif returns
Questions and Answers
- Is “The Final Scene” a standalone single?
- No - it circulates via cast recordings and streaming editions rather than a commercial single.
- What earlier songs echo inside this finale?
- Snatches of “With One Look,” “Surrender,” “New Year’s Eve,” and the title motif surface as memory shards that frame Norma’s break from reality.
- Why does Max call “Lights, cameras, action” at the end?
- He protects Norma by turning the raid into a movie set. The press cameras become her crew, and she can finish the story she prefers.
- How do recent revivals stage the close-up idea?
- Modern productions lean into live video and cinematic framing, making her final walk feel like a broadcast from inside her head.
- Are there language adaptations of this specific scene?
- Yes - the 2019 São Paulo production presented a Portuguese version, “Cena Final,” within a full Brazilian translation of the score.
Awards and Chart Positions
No track-level chart history. The musical’s trophy case frames its legacy: the original Broadway run won 1995 Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Original Score, and Best Book. Jamie Lloyd’s 2023 London revival took seven Olivier Awards in 2024 including Best Musical Revival and Best Actress. The Broadway transfer then won the 2025 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, with Nicole Scherzinger winning Best Actress.
How to Sing The Final Scene
Map the turns. It isn’t a “song” so much as a sequence. Mark where speech hands off to line and back again. Build the fuse, don’t light it early.
Norma’s climb-down. Keep the tone centered and forward for the staircase section. The voice sits on the breath - intensity without volume - so the close-up reads as focus, not push.
Joe’s edge. Baritone bite, crisp consonants, no apology. He’s telling the truth like it’s first aid.
Max’s framing. Speak with velvet authority. The three words - lights, cameras, action - are the softest spotlight in the show.
Ensemble and space. Trust the rests. The orchestra will hold the floor when the text needs air.
Additional Info
Recording credits. Produced for record by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Nigel Wright; orchestrations by Webber and David Cullen; conducted by Paul Bogaev.
Brazil. The São Paulo production (2019) presented a Portuguese translation by Mariana Elisabetsky and Victor Mühlethaler; the finale appears as “Cena Final,” with Marisa Orth leading the company.
The film ghost in the room. The closing speech quotes the 1950 screenplay - one of AFI’s top movie quotes - a reminder that the musical is always in conversation with Wilder’s film.